By: Hockey Alliance Publishers September 3rd, 2003
The publishers that comprise the
Hockey Alliance have teamed up
this Summer to provide news notes from around
the league. This week's column
focuses on the free agent market and what teams
are faced with this off-season.
Take a spin with the latest installment of the
Summer Ramblings...
It's been a busy
and happy off-season for Sabres' fans, a nice
change of pace when compared to
seeing the team owner arrested, the team going
bankrupt and the possibility of
a franchise over three decades old folding. The
Sabres announced the signing of
Chris Drury to a four year contract this week,
in the first year of the deal
Drury will make $3,450,000, a rather large raise
over his last contract.
Sabres' owner Tom Golisano wanted to make a
statement not just to the team's
fans but to restricted free agent Miroslav Satan
that for the first time since
the Knox era, the Sabres' ownership is serious
about improving the team and
winning on the ice. Drury is the latest in a
long string of what have been
fairly easy contract negotiations for GM Darcy
Regier who seems to be working
without restraints for the first time since he
was hired in 1997.
The
month of
August rolled off the calendar with a very
uneventful set of 31 days in
Calgary, mainly due to the high level of
activity seen in June and July.
Defenceman Toni Lydman avoided salary
arbitration and signed a three year deal
meaning a training camp without distraction as
the entire team is either signed
or rumored to have been signed heading into
September.
The Flames main
camp opens on September 11th, and their first
preseason game is scheduled for
September 18th against Edmonton. Although a full
camp roster has yet to be
released, it appears as though Darryl Sutter is
opting for a smaller camp in
his first season as a general manager,
preferring to get down to workable
numbers from the outset in order to get out of
the gates on the right foot. The
team will be aiming to avoid an eighth straight
season out of the playoffs when
their regular season kicks off on October 9th in
Vancouver.
It
has been an
exciting past couple of days for the Blackhawks
and Blackhawk fans. After a few
weeks of very public negotiations, including an
agent taking his side public
right here on Blackhawkzone.com, the Blackhawks
were able to come to a contract
agreement with 2001 first round draft pick Tuomo
Ruutu. Now that the talking is
over, big things are expected from Ruutu this
season. Ruutu didn't get the
model contract but Ruutu's agent Bill Zito told
Blackhawkzone.com that Ruutu
could make more money than the model with this
deal. The Blackhawks also win
with this deal, as Ruutu will only get paid for
the bonus targets that he hits
and the bonuses do not roll over from year to
year, as they do with the model
contract. With most of his leverage gone from
the signing of Ruutu, Blackhawks
Center Tyler Arnason was forced to come down
from his 2.5 million a year
contract wishes and signed a two year deal
earlier this week for 2 million
dollars over two years. Like Ruutu, big things
are also expected out of Arnason
this season and he will have to prove that the
first half of last season was no
fluke.
This
is a
tough time to be a hockey fan in this city. All
local sports media are focused
on the other big sport in town. What passes for
a "newspaper" went 5 days
without any mention of the Blue Jackets. The
opening of training camp on the
11th should start to remind folks that there
still is an NHL hockey team in
town. Talk among the true hockey fans deals with
expectations for the coming
season. Doug seems to be trying to lower
expectations when he talks about
making a run for the playoffs. Most fans will
accept nothing less than playoff
games being held at Nationwide arena in April.
The pressure for a playoff
appearance is definitely on the
President/GM/Coach...and the team.
The
other question is whether first-round pick
Nikolai Zherdev will be in camp. He
recently signed a three year deal with the CBJ.
However, he still has a year's
commitment with the Red Army Team. Apparently
rules prohibit the Jackets from
initiating an "above the table" cash transaction
with the Red Army to free
Zherdev. As we reported earlier, money will have
to change hands, possibly
"under the table".
The
Red Wings got
their wish -- goaltender Curtis Joseph won't be
attending Detroit's training
camp next week -- but it's for all the wrong
reasons. Two weeks ago it was
announced that Joseph underwent a minor surgical
procedure to remove bone chips
in his ankle that had plagued him most of the
2002-03 and well into the summer.
The recovery, which will slate Joseph's return
right near the start of the
regular season, seems well placed by the Joseph
camp. The delay in trading
Joseph could result in forcing the Red Wings'
hand -- leaving him to be placed
on waivers and picked up by, say, the Colorado
Avalanche. Joseph would get his
wish to play for a contender -- one that the Red
Wings would never directly
deal with -- and sticks the Red Wings in the
process.
Despite that
possibility, which could be too rich for
Colorado's blood anyway, some
personnel in the Detroit front office is
optimistic Joseph will be dealt by the
end of the month. Red Wings senior VP Jim
Devellano was quoted last week in the
Vancouver Sun saying the Red Wings are seeking
draft picks or prospects in
return for Joseph, rather than a high-priced
player (a la Martin Lapointe.)
Whether the Red Wings can get that return
remains to be seen, with Boston still
the most likely destination. The Red Wings will
be sending their prospects to
Traverse City on Thursday of this week, a week
before the veterans, so they may
participate in the 5th Annual NHL Prospects
Tournament. Washington, St. Louis,
Minnesota, Atlanta and newcomer Tampa Bay will
also participate. Main Red Wings
camp opens on the 11th.
The
Minnesota Wild
has had a relatively peaceful first three years
on the NHL from a labor
standpoint. That could all change this month if
rapid progress isn't made with
young star winger Marian Gaborik. Gaborik's
three year rookie contract expired
in the off-season and he and Wild GM Doug
Risebrough aren't even in the same
ballpark on a new deal.
Gaborik is a
restricted free agent without
arbitration rights, so unless another team makes
him an offer, all he can do is
sit back and wait for his agent and the Wild to
work things out. While Gaborik
is a bright young star in the league, any team
trying to sign him away from the
Wild would have to pay big bucks up front in
order to discourage the Wild from
matching, and would also need to surrender their
next five first round draft
picks to the Wild as compensation. A steep price
in any year, and one almost
certain to not be met as the league prepares for
a costly labor fight.
In
a time when most teams are signing players to
one year deals because of
finances and the CBA, the Predators have gone
against that trend by signing
their core talent to multi-year contracts. Kimmo
Timonen followed Denis
Arkhipov as the latest Predator to sign on the
dotted line. With training camp
starting next week, that leaves David Legwand as
the lone free agent. Jordin
Tootoo, one of the Predators' most loved
prospects, is in town working with
Predators strength and conditioning coach Mark
Nemish. He hopes to crack the
roster and become the first NHL'er of Inuit
descent.
The
Rangers roster is finally filling out just a
couple of weeks before camp opens.
Captain Mark Messier appears poised to rejoin
the team for his 25th NHL season,
while GM Glen Sather turned to the past in his
latest attempt to remedy the
troublesome left wing position, signing Jan
Hlavac and Martin Rucinsky. In
other news, it's widely expected that both Pavel
Bure and Mike Richter will
announce their retirement in the coming weeks,
both players having their
careers cut short by injury.
After
months of
discussion and speculation, Eugene Melnyk was
finally officially announced as
the new owner of the Ottawa Senators, taking
over the team from incumbent
majority owner Rod Bryden. For a franchise that
had been teetering on the edge
of instability for such a lengthy period of
time, Melnyk provides not only a
stabilizing influence, but also a reason to get
excited about the future of the
Senators. Roster changes have been few and far
between recently, with everyone
eagerly awaiting any news concerning the ongoing
negotiations between the team
and winger Martin Havlat. Havlat has stated that
he would not report to
training camp, schedule to start on September
13th, without a new contract.
The
Flyers
open up camp with every player signed and ready
to go. Top prospect Joni
Pitkanen was signed and is expected to be in the
top 6 come opening night. The
last restricted free agents signed were Justin
Williams and Radovan Somik. Both
players coming off injury plague seasons.
Williams is expected to take on a
great role with the Flyers with Hitchcock
declaring a stronger youth movement.
Somik has played very well with fellow
countryman Michal Handzus. Somik has
drawn comparisons to Jere Lehtinen from coach
Hitchcock.
With
the summer
coming to an end, the Coyotes are rolling into
the new season with many changes
in store. One of which will include a new logo
and uniforms that will be
released on the 3rd of September. Another is the
inaugural Pacific Division
rookie tournament being hosted in Los Angeles.
Prospects from San Jose,
Anaheim, Los Angeles and Phoenix are
participating in the tournament, which
will begin on the 4th of September. The Coyotes
are also headed into a new
arena that they will debut at the end of
December. The new Glendale arena,
which is ahead of schedule, has had the ice
floor complete and is currently
finishing installing of the seats.
The Sharks locked
up all of their restricted free agents last week
by inking defenseman Scott
Hannan to contract. Hannan's signing ensures
that the Sharks will have no
holdouts during training camp for the first time
in several years. New Sharks
GM Doug Wilson made it his first priority to get
players such as Patrick
Marleau, Alyn McCauley, Marco Sturm, Jonathan
Cheechoo and Hannan under
contract in order to avoid the distractions that
plagued San Jose at the start
of last season. Wilson didn't land any offensive
help during the off-season, so
he's expecting five or six players to chip in
with 20 goal seasons. San Jose
will send a team of rookies to Southern
California this week to participate in
a four-team scrimmage with the LA Kings, Mighty
Ducks of Anaheim and the
Phoenix Coyotes.
The
Toronto Maple Leafs
are no longer a rudderless ship. The club has
recently hired John Ferguson Jr.
as the new general manager, allowing Pat Quinn
to focus on the single role of
head coach. Now that Ferguson is in place, he'll
focus on resigning Nik
Antropov and sorting out the Robert Svehla mess.
Svehla, for those who hadn't
heard, is a hodout and has announced verbally
that he's going to retire. The
only problem is he's not willing to sign
retirement papers, freeing the Leafs
from the substantial salary obligations. If need
be, the Leafs will simply
suspend Svehla and let him sit. For the rumor
mongers out there, the latest one
floating around has the Leafs in hot pursuit of
UFA Ken Klee.
